adiemus

Oh wow, that second clip of Lucy was beautiful (and inspirational)

__________________
He wahine, he taonga- Every woman is a treasure(Maori proverb)

LeylaLanty

All excellent examples! Thanks!

Chani

I very much enjoyed these clips, too. As a late starter I am envious of anybody who begins dancing as a young person. What happened in the first clip of Lucy almost half way through when the audience begins to clap. Does she tell them not to? Is that because it is not the end of her dance?

Chani

lucydances

Hi everyone! Robynne sent me a very sweet email and pointed me to this thread last night, and I'm so glad I got to see it. Thank you all for the very kind words!

As for Chani's question -- The "no no" signal is actually something I was doing because of the lyrics at that point in the song, but since people were clapping, it ended up looking like I was telling the audience not to clap (not something I would ever do!). I don't know about other performers, but when I'm dancing, I am very tuned in to the music and also the faces and reactions of the people I see (because I really make a lot of direct eye contact) -- but I don't hear people's applause or responses. I think I'm just so focused on the music and whatnot that I just screen applause out. I didn't realize that it came across the way it did until I saw the video. C'est la vie!

Thanks again.

Lucy

lucydances

By the way, I think knowing the lyrics to any song, but particularly Om Kolthoum, is extremely important. I asked Nora Asad (of Little Egypt) to translate Hayarti Albi Ma'ak for me when I was preparing to dance to it, and here's her translation:



Hayart alby ma'ak

hayart alby ma'ak wana badary wa akhaby

You’ve confused my heart and I try to hide it

2oly amel eh wayak wala amel eh waya alby

Tell me what to do with you or what to do with my heart

bedy ashkilak men nar hoby, bedy ahkelak ala elly fe alby

I want to complain to you about the fire of my love, I want to tell you what’s in my heart

wa a'ol lak ala elly saharny wa a'ol lak ala elly bakany

And tell you about what keeps me up all night & what makes me sad (or cry)

wa asawar lak dana rohy wa ezet nafsy man'any*

ya asy bos fe ainaya we shoof eh elly enkatab feha

Oh cold hearted, look in my eyes and see what is written in them

De nazret sho2 we 7enya we de dam3a badariha

These are looks of passion & love and here is a tear I try to hide

We dah khyal been elagfan fedel m3aya ellil koloh

And this is a thought (upon my eye lids) that stayed with me the whole night

saharny been fekr we ashgany we fat le gowa el3een zeloh

It kept me up and traveled to inside me eye

We been sho2y we 7ermany we 7erty we ya ketmany

And between all my passion and longing that has me locked up

bedy ashky lak men nar 7oby, bedy ahkey lak 3la elly fe 2alby

I want to complain to you about the fire of my love, I want to tell u of what’s in my heart

wa a2olak 3la elly saharny wa a2olak 3la elly bakany

And tell you about what keeps me up and what makes me sad (cry)

wa asawar lak dana ro7y we 3ezet nafsy man3any*

yama laialy ... ana we khaialy, afdal asabar ro7y bkelma youm 2olt'haly

many nights…my thoughts and I, I try to stay patient with a word you once told me

wa abat afakar ... felly gara lak we elly garaly

and I keep thinking of what happened to you and I

wa a2ol ma shafshy el7era 3alaya lama basalem

and I say he didn’t see the confusion in me when I greeted him

wala shafshy youm elsho2 fe 3enaya ra7 yetkalem

and he didn’t see the passion in my eye

wa arga3 asam7ak tany wa a7en lak wa al2any

Yet I forgive you again

bedy ashky lak men nar 7oby, bedy a7ky lak 3ala elly fe 2alby

I want to complain to you the fire of my love, I want to tell you about what is in my heart

wa a2ol lak 3la elly saharny a2olak 3la elly bakany

And tell you what keeps me up all night and what makes me sad (cry)

wa asawar lak dana ro7y we 3ezet nafsy man3any*


*ok this line needs like a whole paragraph to explain, 1) because it’s so deep and rich in meaning 2) because this is just my interpretation of it and I need to ask someone older and more fluent in Arabic than I am.

Ok so, she is saying here that he is her soul, her love, and she has so much love and passion for him, but she can’t show it all to him because that is just not what she is supposed to do. She is not supposed to be the one to express all her love to him. Something in her (maybe pride?) is keeping her from showing him how much he really means to her.

In the song she says she has all this in her eyes and he is just not seeing it. All this fire, all this passion, and he is not noticing it, which is why she calls him cold hearted. AND, this is why the song is called hayart alby ma’ak. She is confused now. Does he not see her love?

Brea

Hi Lucy,

I agree that knowing the lyrics is important! I hope someday to have my dancing in video online; I have heard good things about it mainly from people from the Middle East. What I am curious about is this: we all use these same moves and such, do you think the audience ever get bored? I sometimes get worried, even while I am dancing, that perhaps the dance might seem too repetitive to an audience, and then I think that I don't have enough variety in my movements. My first teacher from Jordan said to me, "All belly dance is a certain number of movements...it is about how you interpret and use them that counts". I wanted to know your opinion on this.

-Brea Morgiane

__________________
www.breamorgiane.com

lucydances

Hi Brea -

This is a great question.

I'm a big believer in the power of personality. It's been said of the great Fifi Abdo that she only uses a handful of moves in her performances (although she uses them with incredible skill and a lot of intricate variation), but she has the power to keep an audience absolutely ENTHRALLED for hours. She is a consummate entertainer, and her wonderful personality suffuses her every movement, transforming them into something magnificent.

I find very technical dancers boring. Don't get me wrong - having good technique is important - but good technique, in and of itself, is boring. I want someone to ENTERTAIN me - to take me on a journey - to meet my eyes, make that personal contact, make me laugh or cry or clap until my palms sting. Technique won't do that -- warmth, sexuality, humor, passion, and joy will.

Lucy

Brea

Hi again Lucy,

Yes, I agree!! I used to dance with a girl who was all technique (used to be a ballerina) and I found her dancing, while technically perfect, also somewhat robotic. She also bought into the whole idea that sexuality was not part of the dance and it looked stilted...plus she was very skinny. She might disagree with the last part but she definitely always looked like a ballerina bellydancing. I do not choreograph anything, I just listen to the song a lot, and I sort of let it take me away. When I auditioned for a cabaret performance recently they told me in some kind of awe, 'Wow, you're not like a normal bellydancer, you're a SEXY bellydancer!' At which I kind of wondered what type of bellydancer is the non-sexy kind. I can kind of see it, though, when people are all technique. Still, especially because I don't choreograph, and because I danced with someone that was technically perfect, I often fear that I don't have enough variety in my dancing. I really like the way you dance, it is very spirited! I would really like to be able to put a video of myself online so people could see it but for some reason the only one I have was filmed sideways and I have to fix it. Still, you have a 'flow' when you dance that I enjoy much more than I ever have enjoyed the overly technical. In fact, I think that bellydance is not supposed to be technical and planned out...it's as though a lot of dancers view it like jazz or ballet. Do you choreograph or do you just dance with the music/interpret the lyrics?

-Brea Morgiane

__________________
www.breamorgiane.com

lucydances

Do you have video of your dancing? Really, it's the best way to assess your dancing.

Anyway, I generally don't choreograph, but when I work on an Om Kolthoum piece, I always start with a framework. For me, Om K deserves some real thought and consideration, not only because she was such a great artist, but because her songs have enormously rich layers of meaning that deserve to really be investigated artistically. So this is what I do --

- Listen to many versions of the song, including the full original version performed by Om K (widely available online)

- Get a translation - if possible, get multiple translations.

- Listen to a version of the song with vocals over and over, translation in hand (I end up memorizing the lyrics this way)

- Do some run throughs. Usually there are large parts which I immediately know how to interpret, but I'll shape them to make sure that the stage dynamics are good (for example, I'm extremely right-hipped, so I have to choreograph left-hipped stuff in so that I don't just forget to do it and end up looking lopsided).

- There are almost always parts that are tough. I'll work with some friends to get their feedback and ideas on what to do in those sections, and go back and re-examine the lyrics as well.

- Go out on stage, forget the choreography, and just pour my soul into it.

This level of preparation is for really special stuff, though - Om K or pieces that I'm doing in big stage shows. Most of my other music I will listen to a thousand times before I use it, but then not actually do a rehearsal - I shape things by performing to them. I like things to be spontaneous and fun when I'm just in pure entertainer mode, and the best part is I usually end up doing something completely unexpected and cool that I never would have thought of otherwise.

- Lucy

Ecuabellydancer

Wow Brea, that sounds just like my current teacher! Seriously! In her classes we have to worry about perfecting movements, repeating choreographies, and she has never told us anything about expressing our emotions through the music. But it so happens there´s a new teacher in town and for these past two weeks I´ve been taking classes with her (yeah, I know, big time cheater!) and yesterday she played a baladi and told us to just dance however we wanted, and at first I was scared because I´ve never done that and with only one year and a half of instruction I feel I don´t know much, but I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, felt the music and just let go my body and it was an amazing experience, at the end all the girls said they loved what I did, and I just felt so free